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This note outlines how an anomaly in European law will impact cookie storage and presents wireframes of permission requests for non-tracking cookies.
Online media will soon find itself in an anomalous position. It will be necessary to apply the GDPR’s consent requirements to cookies that reveal no personal data, even though the GDPR was not intended to be applied in this way.[1]
Recital 26 of the GDPR says that “the principles of data protection should … not apply to anonymous information, namely information which does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person…”.[2]
Even so, a hiccup in the choreography of European Law making is creating an unexpected situation in which the GDPR’s conditions will apply to cookies that reveal or contain no personal data.…

PageFair believes that the GDPR will be strictly enforced. This means all unique identifiers (such as user IDs) and IP addresses will be regarded as personal data under the Regulation, and therefore must not be used in a way that would distribute them in the programmatic advertising system without consent.[1] This is why we launched Perimeter, to protect publishers from risk under the GDPR.
When publishers install PageFair Perimeter on their sites or in their apps, Perimeter will block adtech that uses unique identifiers without consent. Adtech services that do not use personal data where consent is absent will be whitelisted.
Criteria for whitelisting in on sites/apps protected by Perimeter (where required consent is absent)
No use of unique IDs
No storage of IP addresses or user agent details
Adtech vendors can perform necessary campaign measurement, attribution, and frequency capping using non-personal data methods as we have outlined here.…

In the last month, we have written to the MEPs leading the Parliament’s work on the ePrivacy Regulation (the “rapporteurs”) to propose an amendment. Here is a copy of the letter.
PageFair supports the proposed ePrivacy Regulation, in so far as it will change online behavioural advertising. This is an unusual position for an ad tech company, and we have described why we have taken it in a previous note. We agree with the restriction on the use of tracking cookies in Article 8 of the Commission’s proposal for an ePrivacy Regulation, and in the draft report of the Parliament’s rapporteur.
However, non-tracking cookies should not be treated the same way as tracking cookies. While tracking cookies pose a severe risk to data protection (Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights) and privacy of communications (Article 7 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights), non-tracking cookies do not.…

The 3rd-party cookie – the lifeblood of online advertising – may be about to die.
A proposal this month from the European Commission to reform the ePrivacy Directive (ePD) requires mandatory privacy options and educates users to distinguish between 1st and 3rd-parties in a way that will make 3rd-party cookies extinct.
Access the GDPR/ePR repositoryA repository of GDPR and ePrivacy Regulation explainers, official docs, and current status.Access Now
The Commission’s proposal also applies beyond cookies. The proposed reform of the ePD will further add to the the disruption that Europe’s new regulatory regime for privacy – the GDPR – will wreak upon to the media and advertising landscape when it applies in May 2018.
Caveat: the proposal is subject to negotiation between the Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of Ministers.…